"Trolleys, Tales & Talk" Dec. 22, 2009

Dan Clark reads "First Christmas Tree" by William D. Randall (Little Known Stories of Muscatine, Vol. 4) and then takes a call from Randall's daughter, Shirley Calvert. Guest author Tom Savage says his research has turned up more information about early settlers than was known when the historical marker was placed in the 1960s at the foot of Iowa Avenue ("This granite stone marks the site of the first log cabin...." http://muscatine-tours.com/vanater1.jpg). He tells of the trading post started by Mr. Farnham before the Black Hawk War and mentions other early settlers who will appear in the local-history storybook he and wife Sharon are writing. They own Muscatine Books and More (http://muscatinebooks.com) and have sponsored TTT "from the git-go." Finally, Dan reads an excerpt from a Christmas-tree tale by Steve Hanken, about a pine his parents in Iowa sent him in Vietnam in 1969.